shed in 1893, in answer to the question. "Does the
perusal of works of fiction act favourably or unfavourably on the moral
character?"

At his farewell interview with Mr. Dale he was asked, as he writes to
his father, what books he had read, and replied with a pretty long list,
including Quintilian and Grotius. Mr. Dale inquired what "light books"
he was taking to Oxford: "Saussure, Humboldt, and other works on natural
philosophy and geology," he answered. "Then he asked if I ever read any
of the modern fashionable novels; on this point I thought he began to
look positive, so I gave him a negative, with the exception of Bulwer's,
and now and then a laughable one of the Theodore Hook's or Captain
Marryat's." And so, with much excellent advice about exercise and sleep,
and the way to win the Newdigate, he parted from Mr. Dale.

This Christmas was marked by his first introduction to the scientific
world. Mr. Charlesworth, of the British Museum, invited him to a meeting
of the Geological Society (January 4, 1837), with promise of
introduction to Buckland and Lyell. The meeting, as he wrote, was
"amusing and interesting, and very comfortable for frosty weather, as
Mr. Murchison got warm and Mr. Greenau _(sic)_ witty. The warmth,
however, got the better of the wit."

The Meteorological Society also claimed his attention, and in this month
he contributed a paper which "Richard [Fall] says will frighten them out
of their meteorological wits, containing six close-written folio pages,
and having, at its conclusion, a sting in its tail, the very agreeable
announcement that it only commences the subject."

CHAPTER VI

A LOVE-STORY (1836-1839)

Early in 1836 the quiet of Herne Hill was fluttered by a long-promised,
long-postponed visit. Mr. Domecq at last brought his four younger
daughters to make the acquaintance of their English friends. The eldest
sister had lately been married to a Count Maison, heir to a peer of
France; for Mr. Domecq, thanks in great measure to his partner's energy
and talents, was prosperous and wealthy, and moved in the enchanted
circles of Parisian society.

To a romantic schoolboy in a London suburb the apparition was dazzling.
Any of the sisters would have charmed him, but the eldest of the four,
Adele Clotilde, bewitched him at once with her graceful figure and that
oval face which was so admired in those times. She was fair,
too--another recommendation. He was on the brink of seventeen,